


the world you know

by reggievass



Category: Luther (TV)
Genre: AU, Americana, F/M, LA noir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-06
Updated: 2012-06-06
Packaged: 2017-11-07 02:23:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/425849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reggievass/pseuds/reggievass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He asks her would she like something to drink. Coffee? Tea?<br/>She tells him she takes her tea iced because it’s hot here, hot as Mexico, hot as Hell, and has he ever been?<br/>He should come with her sometime.<br/>Sometime, she’s running away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the world you know

**Author's Note:**

> written for a prompt on sister-wife's americana meme on livejournal:  
> Luther/Alice, LA noir AU  
> before the world you know was like it is/i held a lover once and i was his

Her parents are dead in pools of red, and all the police coddle her except for Luther.

They push his theories to the outside. They ignore what he has to say.

They say, It’s about proof.

What they mean is, No judge will listen to a Black Man over a White Woman.

Yes, the capitals are necessary; thank you for asking.

 

She loves the power of it, the complete control of bending lives to her will.

That’s it, really.

Malignant narcissism should be incredibly easy to understand.

Alice smiles at Luther across the table, flirts at Luther from behind her hat’s veil.

He asks her would she like something to drink. Coffee? Tea?

She tells him she takes her tea iced because it’s hot here, hot as Mexico, hot as Hell, and has he ever been?

He should come with her sometime.

Sometime, she’s running away.

 

Alice knows John Luther like he knows her. She knows him and his fool wife who wants to be a lawyer, who wants to beat the world into wrong and right.

She grins holding lovely Zoe captive with a hatpin because Alice knows, Alice sees, that everything’s a mixture.

There’s no Black and White here in the shadows between flashes of drugstore neon.

Here on her streets there is only grey.

 

She’s smarter than everyone, but they only see her legs, her breasts and her hair curled like a bloody question mark.

The answer to the question’s No – or Yes depending on who’s asking and you’d be surprised how many men do.

Her skin is white as snow, but she’s always red where it counts.

She developed very early, you know. Sexually.

 

The law’s drawn tight for another bloody wife shot in her home.

They’ll forgive John because it’s not his fault, this time.

This time, it’s Ian Reed.

But people sure are fickle in this City of Angels.

Don’t think they’ll trust him enough for a second turn in charge.

Don’t think they’ll trust him to bring the fragile ladies in alive no matter what the Mark Norths and Justin Ripleys say.

 

Alice breaks out because he needs her.

She breaks out like a princess from her tower, like a goddess off her pedestal, like a goddamned angel diving into hell.

She’s primed in her black dress and her hat that doesn’t come close to hiding the red.

She’s loaded like a double barrel shotgun, bang, bang.

She’s heading to Mexico because there’s treasure there and heat where eternal youth curls up in the bones of sharks, in the knowledge of gold, in the lines history left in the sand.

 

Don’t you want to come, John? she asks.

I know you want to, John.

You’ve got a tell-tale heart.

 

And he does.


End file.
